Radio Olympics Coverage Split Between Sydney, Rest of Australia

Sydneysiders may have fond memories of when the 2000 Olympics focused attention on their city, but for radio coverage of the 2008 Games, they will find themselves out of tune with the rest of the nation.

Macquarie Radio, owner of Sydney AM station 2GB, is the official radio rights-holding broadcaster for Australia, but it reached an agreement with the Australian Broadcasting Corp. allowing ABC Radio to carry coverage of the Games across Australia, excepting Sydney.

Sydneysiders will still get results and updates on 702 AM, but not the live commentary from the Grandstand team heard elsewhere in Australia.

Television coverage is being shared between the private Seven Network and the public-service SBS TV.

ABC Radio Sport Editor Peter Longman told The Australian newspaper that forcing a different broadcast schedule for ABC Radio in Sydney will affect operations at ABC stations Radio National and Triple J. “Knocking out a metropolitan market such as Sydney from our national network represents major technical and scheduling challenges,” he said.

ABC Radio will carry Olympics programming on 59 metropolitan and regional stations across the country.